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Starfield brings back Fallout 4 favourites, ideal for controller users

The Starfield launch date announcement confirms the upcoming Bethesda RPG space game uses the Fallout 4 favourites system, in great news for controller users.

Starfield brings back Fallout 4 favourites - a person in a greenish space helmet with black tape across one eye

In case you’re living under an asteroid, the Starfield release date is now official. Director Todd Howard confirmed that the next Bethesda RPG game will land in September during a brief video teaser, but in doing so also gave us a few more teasing glimpses of what we can expect from the final game. As such, eagle-eyed Starfield fans can spot that the video confirms it will bring back the Fallout 4 favourites system, rather than the likes of ones used in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim or Fallout 76.

Gameplay featured in the announcement, which can be seen below, includes a quick look at the player switching between their various weapons and equipment. We did get a glimpse of what such a system could look like in the initial gameplay reveal that teased the 1,000 planets in Starfield, but it looks to be in a more final form here that closely resembles the cross-shaped quick-swap menus of Fallout 4.

You can see the moment at 2:16 in the Bethesda video below:

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This confirmation is undoubtedly great news for those who plan to play Starfield on a controller – it’s certainly preferable to the clunky favourites menu of Skyrim, for example. Personally, I quite like Fallout 76’s radial-style menu, but if you have access to a d-pad then the ability to quickly tap one given direction one to three times to easily grab the tool you need is a very handy way to play.

Mouse and keyboard players might be a little less satisfied, however. As someone who played Fallout 4 that way, I always found it a bit of a strange one to navigate with a mouse. I’m not too worried, though. Fallout 4 had a much better solution for keyboard players, after all: simply allowing each slot to be assigned to one of your 0-9 numerical keys. As such it’s likely that Starfield will do the same. If it doesn’t, I’m confident that Starfield mods will soon fix it.

Players on the Starfield subreddit have been discussing this feature with all the vim and vigour of fans still desperate for any scraps of Starfield news. Some are happy to see it make a return, while others content themselves with sentiments like, “At least it’s not using Skyrim’s.” Others ponder how carefully Bethesda chooses every frame shown in their trailers, knowing how eagerly they’ll be pulled apart by the community.

With the Starfield showcase date set for June, it’ll still be a while until we get another substantial look at what’s coming. In the meantime, however, learn about how Starfield ship building works and what the Starfield persuasion system looks like in action. There’s also plenty more great space games on PC to keep you busy for the next few months.